Who Needs Sanity?
by Chris I. Deck
Summary: A mysterious green Reaper causes Pit to hallucinate, faint, and have blank areas of his memory. Can he get it together, or will he lose it completely?
1. 1: Curse

"Time to go!" Pit shouted as he leaped out into the open air. "So I hear those reapers are holed up in another fortress."

"Yes, and they plan to attack the city of Simmerich" the voice of the goddess of light warned. "it seems that they never stop trying to cause trouble."

"I will admit, I hate dealing with the reapers," Pit moaned. "If I can avoid them, I will."

"Aww, are you afraid?" Called an all too familiar voice.

"Stow it, Pitoo" Pit snapped.

"Then don't call me that…ever"

After the usual bickering, an array of lasers lashed out at the two signifying that the reapers were ready for battle. They dove and waved off the lasers long enough to fly right through a large window.

"Any particular reason we didn't use the door?" Dark Pit asked?

"I decided that whenever you enter through the front door, the reception is never great," Lady Palutena announced.

"Fair enough"

Entering through the side proved to be a good idea after all. There was much less resistance on the way to place the little surprise the angels had.

"I can't wait to see how this bomb tears these reapers apart," Pit said, not bothering to hide his excitement.

"You won't need to wait much longer if you hurry up and prime the dang thing," Dark Pit growled impatiently.

It took two days and a great deal of work to make a bomb capable of being carried into battle and still able to destroy an entire fortress. The mission was to place the bomb in the fortress and high tail it out before it turns the place into rubble and slag. Keeping the reapers busy on the outside was a team of twenty eight support angels covering the entry.

Interrupting the celebration was a reaper coming in on them, but this reaper was twice as tall as a normal reaper and glowing with a green light. Before they could react, it grabbed Pit around the waist and brought him close to his menacing, scull face.

"You have caused me much trouble over the years, little angel" The green reaper said in a low, growly voice. "Your escapades have all but driven me mad. Time for me to return the favor"

It then made "eye" contact with the struggling Pit and then the angel went limp. The reaper then let out an unexpected yell of pain as Dark Pit shot him with a fully charged arrow, then dropped Pit onto the stone tile floor. With a laugh that echoed down the halls, the reaper vanished in a cloud of misty smoke.

Pit awoke in a room that smelled of sanitizer and was covered in sweat. Looking around, he relaxed realizing he was in the Skyworld medical wing. Across the room, fiddling with a dark teal feather was Pit's "twin".

"Pitoo?" Pit croaked.

"After dragging your butt out of that fortress as fast as I could and nearly being cut in two with a laser, the last thing I want is to hear someone call me that." Dark Pit muttered.

"Seriously, we got to get you a name you are fine with hearing," Pit said with his usual smile.

"What, did you have some kind of idea?" Dark Pit asked. "Cause just about anything else would be an improvement."

"Well…what about D.K.?" Pit asked. "Take the first and last letters of Dark and you get D.K. And it sounds cool, too"

After a moment of thought, Dark Pit said "That actually does sound cool. I think that could stick."

"Great, now you won't get mad at me whenever I say your name," Pit exclaimed, jumping up.

Pit awoke that night with a fright, every combat instinct on high alert. _Nightmare, _Pit thought, _it must have been that._ The next day, Pit decided he would go to the archery range and try for the 300 meter moving target. On the way, Pit felt suddenly dizzy and when he cleared his head, he found himself on the top of the armory. _How did I get here? _Pit thought _and why do I not remember getting here? _

After that incident, Pit thought he should see the medical wing, but decided he must have just zoned out and wandered onto the roof of a five story building with an entire security detail.

The strange happenings didn't stop there, when Pit was alone in the west hot spring room, he was sure there were others looking at him, yet he was sure he was alone. There were faint whispers coming from no discernable direction.

"...and that is why we decided to use extra steel reinforcement on the north wall," Finished one of the angels working on rebuilding Skyworld after the war.

"Umm…okay," Pit answered, feeling stupid for barely paying attention. He felt like a wreck on the inside, a week after blowing up the reaper fortress. He had been having more of the mystery wanderings and couldn't shake the feeling of being watched no matter where he was.

"Pit, are you feeling like yourself?" asked a genuinely concerned voice.

"I feel fine, Lady Palutena," Pit lied. He didn't like lying to Lady Palutena, but he didn't want to cause any trouble from his weird happenings.

"If that's the best you can lie, then I never need to worry about you tricking me," Lady Palutena said softly. "Now tell me what's up. You have been zoning out, staring into nothingness, and been confused all week. Even D.K. noted that you have become much less talkative, not that he's complaining."

"Really, I just have been…"

"Pit!" Lady Palutena interjected. "Tell me what is going on." Her voice had become much sterner, which made Pit flinch. "Even that, since when have you flinched when I talk to you?"

Pit gave up on trying to worm his way out and came clean about everything that had been happening the last week. As he continued, Lady Palutena's face showed more and more concern.

"Why didn't you tell me what had been happening?" She asked.

"I didn't want anyone to think I was losing it," Pit answered sheepishly.

"How can you fix a problem that you won't tell anyone about?" Lady Palutena started. "What if it became worse? What if…Pit?"

Pit had suddenly become rigid with a look of terror on his face. His eyes were staring at something Lady Palutena decided only he could see. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, but got no response. "Pit?"

Pit let out a cry of terror and fell over backwards. He held his arms in front of his face and started saying something that sounded like "no…leave them…don't kill…please." Lady Palutena leaned closer to Pit and tried to grab his wrist, but then he grabbed her wrist, looked her in the eyes, and muttered "they're dead."

At this point, the goddess knew what to do. She reached out and touched his laurel crown and used the mental link in it to see what he saw. She saw him in the ruins of a place she remembered from thirty years ago. It was part of Skyworld that Medusa had destroyed during her first attack. She saw Pit leaning over the body of one of Pit's old friends that Medusa had killed during the first Great War. Lady Palutena realized that Pit was reliving a memory that he had been repressing for so long.

She had removed her hand from his head and saw that Pit had stopped shaking and was lying still. Suddenly he jumped into the air and ran out of the room. She called his name, but he was out of the room in a second. Lady Palutena then called for her guards to find Pit and bring him back.


	2. 2: Confusion

_They're everywhere _Pit thought. _I can hear them, they won't leave. _

"No, Pit," Medusa drawled. "I will never leave. I will stay here and have my revenge."

Pit turned to where the voice came from and saw Medusa standing there with a fireball in her hand. He dove to dodge it and lunged towards her...but he flew right through her and she dissolved into mist. As he turned around, he saw he was no longer anywhere he recognized. It looked as if he was in some human city…people were wandering around, oblivious to the angel on the roofs above.

"Where the h…how did I get here?" Pit wondered. He jumped from roof to roof until he got to the edge of the city, where he hopped down onto the ground.

"Captain, stop!" one of Lady Palutena's guards yelled. _"So I can cut you in half!" _

Pit spun around and saw four Skuttlers approaching him. Pit reached behind him and pulled his bow off his back and was about to fire when he was suddenly jerked off the ground. There were shouts below and when Pit looked up, he saw a flying creature with talons gripping him. Pit moaned a little from the talon tips digging into him.

After what felt like hours, the giant birdlike creature dropped Pit into a courtyard where he saw three figures advancing towards him. The ones to the left and right looked like hooded skeletons, but Pit saw the skulls were just masks. The one in the center, he couldn't forget. Pit hadn't seen this one in thirty years, since the first Great War on Medusa. Pit wouldn't forget how many of his friends died at the hands of Medusa's lieutenant all in Skyworld called The Underworld Butcher.

"Hey there, Pit," he spat. "I haven't seen you since I was carving up that friend or yours, Rio."

"Butcher," Pit moaned. "You should be dead."

"Sorry to disappoint," The Butcher sneered. "But we have much catching up to do. The Reaper of Sanity's curse made catching you easy. Now," he said with a nasty smile. "I can fully enjoy every minute of this."

A while later…

"Gah!" Pit yelled through his teeth as The Butcher's fist collided with his stomach. This had been going on for twenty minutes, but to Pit it felt like an eternity.

"You are just as soft as thirty years ago," The Butcher laughed. "It's sad, but it makes this so much more fun. Now…what do I have in my bag of fun…?"

Pit looked up to see what he was getting from the bag. His arms were chained up to the ceiling of the large room and he was alone in the room with the most feared man in Skyworld history. Pit had been beaten so much that he wanted to faint, but couldn't.

"Ahh…this looks like fun, what do you think?" Butcher said as he showed Pit a long piece of metal and set it into a fire. "I just got to heat it up a bit."

Pit couldn't keep the fear out of his eyes. He told himself not to show any sign of weakness, that's what The Butcher wanted.

"There we go." The Butcher said as he approached the trapped angel. Without warning, he started hitting Pit with the red hot metal. Pit tried holding back but couldn't anymore and let out a yell of agony and felt his body burn.

It ended and Pit wanted to be anywhere else but here. He looked up at The Butcher as he was taking out a wicked looking knife.

"Well…I've had my fun," The Butcher said. "But now it is time to finish this."

He was about to strike when there was an explosion heard in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!" The Butcher demanded. He ran to the door, seeming to forget about Pit and left the angel alone in the room.

Pit thought maybe there was a way out after all. His thought was interrupted by the sound of metal snapping and Pit fell to the floor. He felt someone drag him to a wall. There was a loud blast as the wall crumbled.

"Don't die on me, now" a Female voice said.

"Who is that?" A male voice demanded.

"Not sure, but we can't leave him here." The female voice answered.

Pit wanted to look and see who was moving him, but he was too worn out, and he slipped into sleep.

Pit woke up in a room alone. There were a few candles lighting the room faintly and he realized he was in water…hot water…hot spring water. When Pit looked at his body, he saw that he was healed by the hot spring. He staggered to the door and opened it.

Sunlight momentarily blinded him, and when he looked around, he saw a fountain and a few buildings around him. Picking the one on the right, Pit made his way over to the door and found it open. Stepping inside, he noticed a tile floor and clay walls leading to a metal door. He pushed it open and saw two people arguing. Upon seeing him, one of the people rushed over to Pit.

"We might still have a chance if you help," The man said. "We can't last much longer against the reaper army."


	3. 3: Explanation

"Care to explain where I am, who you are, and why a reaper army is after you?" Pit rapid fire asked.

"You are in Zantal, a city that has been targeted by the reapers because we took something of great value to them," The stranger answered. "As for who I am, my name is Roger Jones, and I am running out of options and was hoping you could help."

"So you took this valuable item from the reapers the same time you brought me here?" Pit clarified. "So what is this greatly valuable thing you took?"

Roger gestured to his left towards what appeared to be a green flame inside a glass and metal cylinder. "This is the Great Reaper Flame; it is basically the energy force of the reapers. Without it, although the reapers will not die, their power will be greatly reduced."

Pit thought about how tough reapers are and how hard it would be for a group of humans to take on an army of them.

"I'll help you, but I need to contact the others, they would…" Pit began.

"It's no good," Roger Jones interrupted. "You can't reach them if you are within twenty five kilometers of this flame. As soon as the reapers are repelled, we can get you far enough from here to get you home, but until then, you really can't go anywhere."

After a moment of thought, Pit said, "Then I will need to see how this place is fortified and what the enemy numbers are."

Roger showed Pit the wall around the city, there were archers lining the whole thing. The town had a rough population of fourteen thousand, with thirty five hundred soldiers guarding it. Things looked good until the reaper force was described.

"They must have at least as many reapers as people are in this city," Roger said gravely. "They come from every angle; there is nowhere to run…so we fight."

_I had better not have any mind issues during the fight, _Pit thought. _That would only make things worse than they already are. _

Things were going to get really bad really fast. The reaper army was advancing, there was nowhere to go, and Pit still had not found a way to call for help from Skyworld. Pit grabbed a modified bow he threw together and a quiver of explosive arrows he made.

_Against a reaper, these arrows may not be a wonder weapon, _Pit thought. _But they sure as hell will put a dent in their numbers. _

Pit walked to the edge of the wall and looked out across the battlefield. He was ready for battle, but could only hope that the others were just as ready.

_Come on, reapers, _Pit thought. _First I'll tear you apart, and then I'm coming for The Butcher. I'll make him pay for every one of my friends he killed. _

That is when hell came to Earth…


	4. 4: Chaos

The first explosion, Pit was ready for. As for the second, it sent him falling off the wall. Arrows were flying towards the reapers like a swarm of gleaming metal bees. The reapers were falling, but not fast enough to stop their advance.

Pit was running low on explosive arrows, so he made a dash to the armory where he was keeping his stockpile. Then, without warning, Pit found himself looking at a soldier who had a burn on the side of his face. Pit realized that he was in the medical building. Looking at the wounded soldier, Pit had a strange, violent urge and realized he was holding a knife above the soldier's heart. Pit quickly sheathed the blade and backed out of the building. Pit then ran to retrieve his arrows, making sure he was as far away from the medical building as possible.

Many miles away and unknown to the people of Zantel, DK was putting together an assault team ready to deploy to fight back an attack at a human city.

"The place is called Zantel," DK explained. "There is a huge army of reapers surrounding it. I don't ever remember seeing an attack this big, and seeing as this city doesn't seem to have a tactical advantage for the reapers, there must be something in the city we're missing."

In what couldn't have been four minutes, DK and the assault force were able to see the city. Seeing it wasn't really hard to do, the fires and pillars of smoke were hard to miss.

As suddenly as lightning hits a tree, DK realized he was losing altitude, the power of flight cut out. DK quickly straightened out his wings and glided towards the city with the others right behind him.

"What gives?" DK demanded. "We're not there yet."

There was no answer from Lady Palutena's end. "Are you there?" DK repeated. No answer came.

DK didn't have much time to think about this, because he had fallen to about thirty meters above the ground. He found a good place to land where there were no reapers and the ground looked even enough.

DK hit the ground running and slid baseball style to stop. The others touched down around him and immediately they were fired upon by more than a dozen reapers. The reapers didn't have much of a chance and they fell as fast as they arrived.

The angels fought their way to the city wall, or rather what was left of the city wall. There were burn marks and cracks covering it and in front of the assault team was a gap the size of a whale. The team entered through the gap and was hit by a gruesome sight. There were bodies of humans and reapers spread all across the street. The bodies lay in unnatural positions and there was blood pooling and smeared everywhere. When the smell hit, DK gagged.

There was the sound of fighting coming from deeper in the city. The assault team followed the sound, killing any reapers they saw on the way.

Pit and the human army were not faring well and desperation was in the air. The reapers wanted the Great Reaper Flame, and it was looking like they might have it. Then Pit hatched an idea, perhaps a crazy one, but it was something.

"I need to destroy it," Pit told Jones.

"But we were studying it and were beginning to understand its great technology," Roger Jones tried to reason. "We can't destroy it now."

"It's the only way to stop the reapers!" Pit shouted. "If we don't, the reapers will kill everyone in this city. If we destroy it, then the reapers will be defeated."

Roger sighed, "Fine, it's in the four story building behind us. But be aware that the energy it contains is great. When it cracks, the explosion will be huge."

"I'll find a way to destroy it without killing myself," Pit stated. "I just need a few minutes."

With that said, Pit sprinted to the building containing the Flame. The Great Reaper Flame was not hard to find as it gave off a bright green light. Pit approached the cylinder and thought about how to destroy it. An explosion should get the job done, so Pit fastened seven explosive arrows to the side and rigged a simple fuse. Hoping the fuse was long enough Pit lit the end and dashed to the exit like his life depended on it, which it did.

Pit exited the building and looked back waiting for the explosion. When it came, it was greater that Pit had expected, obliterating the building and knocking the angel into the fountain behind him. The impact left Pit dazed and dizzy. When he pulled himself up, he saw that there seemed to be a green mist coming off the reapers who appeared to be in agony. The soldiers took advantage of this and cut them down with arrows, spears, and swords.

About two hundred meters from the explosion, DK and his team saw that the reapers were giving off a strange mist and were groaning in pain. They took advantage of this and cut them down without a second thought.

The fighting on the way to the center of the city was considerably easier after that. When they made it to the center, they saw a crater that must have been eighty meters across. At the edge of the crater they saw Pit fighting who DK recognized from old battle records as The Underworld Butcher. More than two and half meters tall, his muscles bulging under his armor, he was slashing with a huge sword and sending jets of flame at Pit, who seemed to be on his last string.

The assault team opened fire on The Butcher, who sent a wave of fire towards them, causing DK to dive out of the way. When the flame passed, DK saw that The Butcher was no longer fighting alone. The same green reaper showed up and was laughing a cold, gravelly laugh.

"Concentrate fire on the reaper!" DK shouted. The wave of shots that hit the large reaper was glowing with different color energy. They collided with the reaper, and with a yell of pain, it collapsed. Green mist came off the body just like it did all the other reapers.

The Underworld Butcher, however, was not affected the same way the reapers were and was still fighting. DK was ready to open fire on The Butcher when Pit did something crazy. He pulled out a large dark green sack and dove at The Butcher, tackling him down into the crater. After a moment there was an explosion from inside the crater.

"No!" DK yelled. "Pit!"

He ran to the edge of the crater and looked down into it. He saw The Butcher at the bottom, his body smoking and a sharp pole of metal sticking out through his chest.

A hand suddenly reached out and grabbed the edge and made DK jump back in surprise. He reached down, grabbed the hand and pulled Pit up out of the crater.

"The Butcher is dead," Pit said.

"So is the green reaper," DK replied. "Now let's get out of here."


	5. Epilogue

It would be overly optimistic to assume that when Pit came back to Skyworld, it was like nothing happened. The immediate threat was gone, but there will always be the next obstacle.

"It didn't work, boss," reported a figure in thick armor plating. "The Reaper of Sanity and the Butcher are both dead."

Another armored figure standing near the rail of a balcony sighed. "They might have stopped those two, but rest assured they will fall. The preparations are going as planned. We will be ready to attack within a week and we WILL crush them."

The other armored figure paused a moment on his boss's words. He'd seen in person what the army they will be facing is capable of. They had defeated the underworld forces twice in thirty years and sent the Aurum packing when they invaded Earth.

"Dismissed, soldier," barked the figure leaning on the rail. There was the sound of scuttling and then the commander was alone.

As he looked over the rail at his army, he felt anticipation about the soon to come fight. There were lines of troops, all wearing matte gray armored plating, scurrying between great bulking indigo fliers. Each flier was at least fifteen meters long and had numerous faint glowing lights along the edges. At last count, there were 78,512 soldiers registered in this base. Surely this force was large enough to turn Skyworld into rubble.

The commander was unable to suppress a grin under his faceplate. _Once Skyworld falls, _he thought. _I can finally direct my attention to the final stages of the Master Plan._ He looked over his plans and was glad stage five, crush Skyworld, will be finished soon. Stage six proved too hard to wait for patiently.

"Enjoy your victory now, little angel," The commander muttered. "In a week's time, I will be the one celebrating. There is just a little more to do…" With this happy thought, the commander slipped inside his quarters, visions of victory flashing in his mind, and reviewed the plan once more.


End file.
